Friday, April 1, 2011

A is for Attire - for your characters

Day one of the Challenge!

Can you feel the adrenaline pumping in your blood? The excitement that all 600 of us have to work together to have a ton of fun! I am lucky to be a participant two years in a row and this year a co-host.

What. an. honor.

So what am I waiting for? Let's dive in!

Attire- for your characters.

Character.

Is it important while writing to know what your character would wear? Short answer - yes (at least from my point of view).

If your main character is a fairy named Fina (yes I have a fairy named Fina) she'll have different clothing than a normal human. One has to be careful with her wings. Are her wings able to bend and form a sweater or are they soft enough to cover up?

What era do they live in? Is this a contemporary novel or a historical novel. If I dress my character as Marie Antoinette and she's going to the supermarket chances are others will notice and the reaction will not be what it should.

So make yourself a character arc. Properly learn not only about your character's personality but also what they should wear!

Attire is my weak point. I work hard on my worldbuilding, and this is definitely part of it, but probably the part I neglect the most! Great start to the A to Z challenge--it's been fun seeing what people come up with!

I have to admitt - an important stuff - although the characters in my "stories" are mostly invisible... :)Many thanks for the warm welcome Jen, and for your kind comment. I stumbled upon the A to Z challenge via some other cyber friends and now I'm in....I know it will be fun, the sites like that are an amazing inspiration.

I'm notoriously an underwriter when it comes to attire.#lazy On the other hand I tend to be a bit wordy in general.#lovethesoundofmyownvoiceSo when I finally joined this blogfest at 721st I knew it was the perfect challenge for me.

Good point, Jen! If I write a piece in another time or another world, the last thing I think about is what they wear, but I have to know, so I usually waste time out of writing figuring that out. It would be a lot better if I figured it out first! Thanks for putting a finger on something I try to ignore. :)

Great question ... My character are pretty much all casual. One guy, Bennie, likes to think he's a jet setting hot shot and dresses up for work in suits and power ties. But most of my characters are grad students so they wear jeans, shorts, whatever.

I think you make some very good points and I also think this why I am a great reader and not a great fiction writer. I have an imaginative mind but not enough to be able to picture all the things that need to be illustrated through words in a book. So you keep writing I will raed and then I can write about what you write :) I like the name Fina

Oooh, the first challenge post I'm reading, and it's full of excellent advice! I'm not a visual person (I would be horrible as a police witness), so thanks for the reminder that my characters shouldn't be running around naked unless it's pertinent to the story! So far all anyone's wearing in my Challenge: A is a head scarf! Oops! :-)

Not being a writer I don't have any characters to clothe or to be concerened about their attire. However, this is a good reminder that I have "character." I need to be very concerned about my attire in order to have a good character vs bad character. Great beginning!

My characters, since I am not a writer, are only my own girls. Though in a way, with my photography I form characters... but it can be very expensive to attire them on my own so I hardly ever get quite what I am going for because I am making do and on a budget...

I visualize my characters in scenes fairly well, so clothing (or lack thereof) is easy. As a reader, I've been totally pulled out of otherwise great books by what a character is wearing. Not just the mechanics (mainly in fantasy) but when the choice seems 'off.'

Dressing like Maire Antoinette to go grocery shopping… hemmm. Now there is an idea. I once saw a woman who thought to dress like Anne Boleyn to attend the Other Boleyn Girl. It did look odd, will rethink that one.

I've been thinking about clothing of my characters a lot recently. I don't like to do a lot of description on clothes (especially constantly), but because I created an alternate world, I had to know how different people would dress. (I also, too, had to figure out how shirts would go on around/over wings.) And different clothes can say so much not only about the culture, but about the character.

For real - that was some solid advice! I know for most writers that may be "um, yeah, no duh", but for people like me - who enjoy writing but kinda (it's a word in my book!) suck at it - that would have completely slipped my mind. Wow, long way to say thanks!

Jen thank you for popping over and saying hello and introducing yoruself for the A-Z blog Challenge. Im so very excited to see where this will take me in my writing.I was up late alst evening writing my first one A. Then went to bed dreaming what each letter would be. Im very excited to read others and learn and grow.Again thanks for coming by.Blessings

hi miss jen! cool post. hmmmm for my fish story they all wore scales cept for shak the shark and he work shark skin. ha ha. in my dragon fly story gunther the goat and rowdy raccoon wore fur and fletch the grellowbird wore feathers. wow how easy is that! ha ha....hugs from lenny

Whenever I read a book, I get joy from imagining what the characters are wearing. I like it when the author describes the clothing because it makes the characters more real. Make sure you stop by to see what I'm coming up with for the challenge.

You're right! Clothes are very important to the story, and I usually don't pay enough attention to details like that. Your post has given me a great idea for a story. Thanks for the idea and for co-hosting.

I have to make a conscious effort to include some references to clothes (in my contemporary romances). I don't like too much description unless it's really relevant to the story. Look forward to more of your A-Z blogs - and good luck with the challenge.http://paulamartinpotpourri.blogspot.com

I wanted to drop by as promised, and thank you for the warm welcome to the fold of the A to Z April 2011 challenge.

You were my first commentor in connection with the blogfest,and I thought I'll dedicate the month to visiting your blog, and finding an adjective for each post, the first letter of which corresponds with the letter of the day! :)

To answer your question: I have not been writing fiction for a while, but when I do, I would like the clothes to also tell the story of the personality of my character in a subtle manner that adds up at the end of the story.

This is a good point.. Sometimes books give too much clothing detail, and other times there isn't any. I thin finding the right balance is important. I plan to add these kind of details in my revisions, since it's not setting that comes naturally to me.

I usually don't think about what the my characters are wearing. I kind of assume that as most of them tend to be teens/college, they're most probably in jeans. So I'll only mention something about clothes if they decide to dress up or are going to some event or something.

What a magical post to start the challenge. I'm off in search of a fairy.Here's my start to the A-Z challenge. I'm really looking forward to the month ahead!http://thebookgatherer.blogspot.com/2011/04/first-day-of-april.html

Love the idea of a character dressed as Marie Antoinette at the supermarket - had an instant visual affect for me. Thank you for pointing out this very important characterization method - I think most of my poor characters have been walking around unclothed because I've forgotten to clothe them. Oops.

Hi, nice to meet you. I'm going down the list commenting for the challenge. I love your blog, you seem like such a fun person. Love your post too. I have vampire characters and they like to dress old fashion - long skirts, conservative blouses, except for Jesu, he doesn't really care what he wears and likes jeans and t-shirts.

I had so much trouble deciding on a uniform for the magical school in my wip. I needed it to help me world building as well as having them reasonably attired in something that could deal with a little rough treatment.I mapped out the whole school curriculum, rankings for the Masters and the grading system as well as the the time table. My school was attired weeks before the kids were ;)

Characters are always my stumbling block. I can think of a thousand great plots, but my characters tend to be limited to the second dimension. If you continue the "character" theme I'm sure I learn quite a bit though :-)

Attire...hmmmm....My character would go naked if she wouldn't get arrested, she doesn't much care for fashion :) Thanks for stopping by my blog. What is tweeter anyways? I hear tweeter this tweeter that, maybe Norway is a little behind the times. Then again it could just be me :)

I only mention clothing if it's relevant. I have read novels where it seems like a fashion catalogue and I prefer to create the character I'm reading as much as possible in my own head. So for me, just a few key points, that's all. Great post :)

I try to visualize my characters and setting so that when I'm in scene, I have things nicely set up already. This is why I admire people who write Fantasy and Historical Fiction. There has to be soooo much more attention to detail.

I have to be careful not to overdo the attire. My interest in Elizabethan England started with the costumes so I know more than you average bear and tend to get too specific. I write, then edit myself down to something readable. :)My critique partner does the opposite and it's my job to ask the question "What is she wearing?" Attire is as important to setting the scene as the environment.Good post.

It is so important to know everything about your character. Paula Danziger, who was a prolific children's author did a workshop a few years back that I attended (just before she died). She talked about filling out a long questionnaire about your character, so that you know them inside and out. Not all the information would be shared in the story but you would know how they would react. Great post.

I've been writing a novel for the past four years which has sprung from both my experiences living in England and Malaysia. I focus a lot on the little actions they do in every situation, like tapping their fingers on their leg whilst waiting agonisingly for a fax.

It's a good idea to write about the type of clothing they wear too - I'll look into that!

Love this post! I am very passionate about my characters. I collect props and costumes for all of my main characters. Having a visual reference is fun and useful! Helps keep the creative juices flowing. Thanks for the awesome post. I look forward to reading more!

Oh dear, I tend to neglect clothes when I write characters. Of course I don't pay that much attention to fashion and clothes in real life either. If it's clean and it fits that works for me.

Contrary to my usual practice of subscribing to comments, to save time during challenge I will not be doing so during April. If you want to respond to my comment , please email me directly from your email notification for the comment. Thanks.

Thanks for reminding me to pay more attention to the attire of my characters. I don't write many books but work on different screenplays and often neglect that important aspect of the story when developing my characters.

I can definitely see where the attire of a character would be a major detail to work out and build from. I don't write much prose fiction - I stick to screenplays - and there I also do give basics for wardrobe - but not in blistering detail because that would infringe on the costume designer's bailiwick - but that said I certainly try to point them in the right direction. Great post!

I love dressing my characters! I have list of clothes I've been that each character would wear. Lots of them come from the shop I work in cause I'm there everyday. I have to stop myself from going into Costume Porn when I write though.

What my characters wear is an integral part of their culture and society as well as something to cover their nekkidness. It's been fun designing the clothes worn by my different cultures. I borrow heavily from our own world but give things my own spin.

Describing clothing is always a challenge for me. I agree it's an important part of characterisation, but only to a point. I mean, we don't need to know what the MC is wearing in every single scene, only those where it helps paint the picture. Knowing when to explain the clothes can be tricky. I think I've probably got too many in my current draft.

Good point, Jen! I think also, if you're writing to a YA audience, it's important to know what is in fashion these days. I read so many YA books where scrunchies are still mentioned, or midrif tops. It's a sure sign that the writer has clicked on to the change in fashion.

I'm a visual learner, so I definitely have a picture in my head of my characters. However, how much of that picture I share with the reader varies. For various reasons ;-) I'm sure I'm not the only one who is sometimes aghast when the book is made into the movie and the main character is COMPLETELY wrong. Tom Cruise in The Firm, for example. He'd been more Ryan Reynolds in my head. This is probably also a big reason why the movie is NEVER as good as the book.Nice to meet you, and thanks for the sensible tips. Hope to be seeing you "around". Loving this challenge already!Tina @ Life is Good

Loved the clothing suggestions for fairies. I learned in a course once that wings came about because the Greeks needed to pull actors off stage so constructed a pulley device under their 'wings'...had to be so-shaped to give balance when uplifted.